Returning to the srga's after a few years using trinovid 10x42 hd's, a good few months with the habicht 7x42's and a brief owner ship of the Nikon 10x35 e criterions.
I love the srga's, they were a big part of my birding hobby for a good few year when I really got back into it in my late 20's so now I seem to have one of the last pairs (maybe even last, they disappeared from the website after my order) I thought I'd just add a little rambling addendum of unscientific personal opinion.
There a great little set of bins and I'm sorry opticron have discontinued them, as Niel says there's not many small porros left now and there an excellent choice for someone getting into the hobby, great value.
The case, small, leather, not too big - absolutely perfect, I'm going to use them without the neck strap etc just with the case slung over my shoulder when I'm not in full on birding mode, it's a really really nice case! I'd pay £25 for it on its own and think I'd got a bargain.
Having run an alpha porro for a while there is definitely a step down to the srga's in the optical perfection game. The main downside is the focuser, slightly too fast for comfort, you need to be very accurate, focus snap is a little too easy to whizz past, there's literally millimeters of focus wheel travel in it. Excellent 8.5/10 clarity when you find it though.
Glare is back compared to the habichts where it's just not a thing, not bad but not the best, still much better than some others I've tried in the same or higher price brackets. From what I've read the 8x30 habichts have similar issues. Baffling is almost non existent to look at - just a bit of blacking near the objectives no knife edge baffles or cones, literally 2 ridge baffles from what I can see, matt unpainted metal ring before the prisms, objectives not hugely recessed, I could go on... It's surprising looking into the objectives that they do as well as they do, doesn't matter what it looks like though as they DO perform well.
Ca is very well controlled, not quite up there with a kowa, but the srga's are brighter to compensate, it's not something you notice without looking for it in the usual places.
Field of view is excellent at 145m at 1000, perfect centre field, very slow fall off from there but noticeable, worth keeping a subject centered as much as possible.
Handling/stability is typical of these small porro's, one of the main advantages i find of the 42 porro's and up however bright it is is actually the ability to stabilise by holding at the objectives, it makes a huge difference to stability and is something that you just can't do with a small 32, I really think it makes much more of a difference than most people think to getting detail at distance.
Eye cups, fold down, rubber, my favourite type of eye cup. Comforts good but I'd prefer them to be larger (I don't wear glasses) back to the "should manufacturers offer different sizes" debate. The rubber armoured habichts I'm used to are the best of this type for me (and a few other it seems) so it's not really a fair comparison.
Build quality seems well judged, I think of opticrons as the Toyota's of binoculars, reliable, functional, forgettable in a good way. Opticron seem to source just the right manufacturers for their market segment, whoever does that work for them really knows there stuff and value conscious birders have really benefitted from that work for donkeys years.
Product support from opticron, delivery, repairs etc from what Ive experienced from both is just the same as swarro (at least in my UK experience), again an underrated strength, top brand.
In summary I think these are keepers this time round mainly it must be said for sentimental reasons but the optics are more than worth the asking price, I'll use them a lot.
Apologies if anyone's bothered reading that - times precious but I had to get it off my chest!
